Critically examine the Nunnery Scene in Hamlet.
In ‘Shakespeare’s master piece Hamlet,
the Nunnery Scene, which comes in the First scene of the third Act, is among
the important scenes of the play. The scene gets its title from the hero’s
repeated use of the word ‘nunnery.’ The scene contains a fine picture of Hamlet
in his ‘antic disposition’ and also marks the final breach of the pair of
lover, Hamlet and Ophelia. Let us see first in what state of mind Hamlet
confronts Ophelia in the Nunnery scene when he comes to know from the assumed
ghost of his father that the late king of Denmark has been poisoned to death by
his own brother Claudius who has usurped the crown and marries the widow of the
dead king, that is his mother, Hamlet faces a tremendous blow of fate. Further,
he is waged by the ghost to avenge the murder of his father, but without hurting
Gertrude, his mother. This burden is almost unbearable for him and he hides his
real-self behind the mask of an ‘antic disposition.’ This drives Claudius, the newly
crowned king, into a deep confusion and he, being conscious of his guilt is
desperate to know the cause and motive behind it. Polonius, courtier to the king,
argues that this madness in Hamlet is the effect of the frustration which he
suffers after the rejection of his love by Ophelia, daughter of Polonius. To
prove his argument he proposes to arrange a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia
and further proposes to ‘loose’ his daughter at Hamlet.
